A consumer experience
In most of Moldova, the concept of a supermarket doesn't exit - the exceptions being Chisinau, the main city, and a few other smaller cities through the country. Instead, Moldovans purchase their produce, meats, and other commodities in a variety of ways - from the piata (market), from neighbors (for example, we trade eggs to our neighbors for milk and brinza, a type of cheese), and from small stores called, in Romanian, "magazines."
These stores are typically pretty small, and although there might be many of them throughout a town or village, they usually have very similar products - but are not always reliable in what they stock. This week - tons of yogurt! Next week - there is none. You have to be careful when shopping there too - you might get excited at the site of a snickers, but who knows when it expired... and so on and so forth. You also don't serve yourself in these stores. You walk in, and are standing in usually a fourth of the store, the other 3/4ths is behind an reverse L shaped counter - where one or two women (yes, always women) will get you what you want off the shelf. This is not conducive to quick shopping. Especially if you like to read product information, like I do. Even more so if you can't read Russian, as I can't. :) Also, while waiting on line you need to battle for your spot with the local men, who have come there to buy cheap drink-at-the-counter shots of vodka. It's fun times.
They can be confusing as well. For example, do you know how to look at an abacus and tell how much you owe? I don't. And I have lived here a year and half already. They add up your purchases on the abacus as they go, grabbing something here and something there. Then they wait for you to pay them. "How much?" I ask, and they gesture to the abacus RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE. "how do you not understand that?" Bah!!!
Another magazin-specific experience is receiving things other than money for change. Sometimes the stores just don't have change. So they will hand you a box of matches, a few pieces of candy, a stick of gum, and once - some unmarked vitamins. Thank you very much, but I'd rather have my money. And they don't see this as a problem -- and they won't let you refuse to take the candy/gum/crazymeds because it is yours - they owe it to you. But If I wanted a candy I would have bought one, I insist. Take it, they say. So I do. In April, after receiving a piece of gum as change, I returned to one of the stores, realizing I had forgotten to buy soap. I bought it, and handed over the stick of gum as part of my payment. The lady just looked at me. "This is gum," she says, "and you didn't give me enough money." I just smiled at her and said "if this counts as money when you give it to me, it counts as money when I give it to you." Crazy Americans.
Recently, a magazin opened up around the corner from us. This is good news, because before, the closest one was 15 minute walk. Not very conducive to winter time chocolate cravings. Or surprise birthdays. Today was my host cousin's birthday. Maybe I knew it at one time, but I definitely didn't know it when I saw him this afternoon. So I ran to this new magazin and bought a box of chocolates - thinking what 10 year old doesn't love chocolates. He loved the gift, and ripped open the box, only to find a box of smashed up and gone-bad chocolates. How sad.
So I took the box and went back to the shop. I told her what had happened - about them being bad, and showed them to her - the box was minus one candy becuase my host cousin, being brave - decided maybe they were just smushed and still TASTED delicious -- they didn't, he discovered, spitting the piece he had in his mouth to the ground. She just looked at me and said "Well how was I supposed to know they were bad without opening them?" and I said, "How am I supposed to give this as a present to someone," "Well I can't take it back there is one missing." "I will go get it from the garbage if you want," I replied. She looked at the box and showed me that the chocolates were not yet past the expiration date. "Yes, I saw that," I replied, "but I can clearly see that they are expired." "Well, I can't take them back." "Okay, well I don't want them - this is not something I would want to give as a gift. If you don't support your product, I am not going to shop here anymore" - and I started to walk out. She stopped me, "let me call my boss," she says.
So she calls the man that owns the magazin - a neighbor of mine, but not one that I own well. By this time there is a crowd of people in the store to see what is going on, and also, waiting to buy stuff - becuase there is only one person working and she is dealing with me. While the lady working in the store explains to the boss about the chocolates, the people in the background are encouraging her to tell him WHO is trying to return chocolates... "Tell him it's the American girl" one shouts, the other says "make sure he knows it's the peace corps girl." "Shh" I yell at them, "it doesn't matter WHO is returning a product, it matters that the product has to be good." Finally the saleslady resigns, and tells the boss that the American is upset because the chocolate is bad. She gets off the phone a second later, apologizes, and hands me back my money. What a ruckus. I thanked her, even though she was rude to me in the beginning - she was apologetic in the end. I don't think they are used to people demanding to have their money back if a product isn't good. That type of customer satisfaction is a western idea.
So I left the store, and realized, I had no new gift for my host cousin. I didn't want to go back into the store, because I had made a big deal about not knowing if I could trust their products - which I still don't. So, being lazy and not wanting to walk 30 minutes to the other store and back, I returned home, and gave him the money for the chocolates -- and told him to buy them for himself later. He seemed satisfied - to some strange people, money is just as good as choclate - and so did I.
I don't know why I got so mad though - it's not like it was the first time I purchased something that was spoiled or stale or gone bad in Moldova, nor will it likely be the last. Maybe it was becuase the chocolates were a gift. Or maybe I have just worn out my patience for a few of the little issues that I confront everyday, and have confronted for the last year and a half. Watch out world, line cutters are next!!!!
These stores are typically pretty small, and although there might be many of them throughout a town or village, they usually have very similar products - but are not always reliable in what they stock. This week - tons of yogurt! Next week - there is none. You have to be careful when shopping there too - you might get excited at the site of a snickers, but who knows when it expired... and so on and so forth. You also don't serve yourself in these stores. You walk in, and are standing in usually a fourth of the store, the other 3/4ths is behind an reverse L shaped counter - where one or two women (yes, always women) will get you what you want off the shelf. This is not conducive to quick shopping. Especially if you like to read product information, like I do. Even more so if you can't read Russian, as I can't. :) Also, while waiting on line you need to battle for your spot with the local men, who have come there to buy cheap drink-at-the-counter shots of vodka. It's fun times.
They can be confusing as well. For example, do you know how to look at an abacus and tell how much you owe? I don't. And I have lived here a year and half already. They add up your purchases on the abacus as they go, grabbing something here and something there. Then they wait for you to pay them. "How much?" I ask, and they gesture to the abacus RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE. "how do you not understand that?" Bah!!!
Another magazin-specific experience is receiving things other than money for change. Sometimes the stores just don't have change. So they will hand you a box of matches, a few pieces of candy, a stick of gum, and once - some unmarked vitamins. Thank you very much, but I'd rather have my money. And they don't see this as a problem -- and they won't let you refuse to take the candy/gum/crazymeds because it is yours - they owe it to you. But If I wanted a candy I would have bought one, I insist. Take it, they say. So I do. In April, after receiving a piece of gum as change, I returned to one of the stores, realizing I had forgotten to buy soap. I bought it, and handed over the stick of gum as part of my payment. The lady just looked at me. "This is gum," she says, "and you didn't give me enough money." I just smiled at her and said "if this counts as money when you give it to me, it counts as money when I give it to you." Crazy Americans.
Recently, a magazin opened up around the corner from us. This is good news, because before, the closest one was 15 minute walk. Not very conducive to winter time chocolate cravings. Or surprise birthdays. Today was my host cousin's birthday. Maybe I knew it at one time, but I definitely didn't know it when I saw him this afternoon. So I ran to this new magazin and bought a box of chocolates - thinking what 10 year old doesn't love chocolates. He loved the gift, and ripped open the box, only to find a box of smashed up and gone-bad chocolates. How sad.
So I took the box and went back to the shop. I told her what had happened - about them being bad, and showed them to her - the box was minus one candy becuase my host cousin, being brave - decided maybe they were just smushed and still TASTED delicious -- they didn't, he discovered, spitting the piece he had in his mouth to the ground. She just looked at me and said "Well how was I supposed to know they were bad without opening them?" and I said, "How am I supposed to give this as a present to someone," "Well I can't take it back there is one missing." "I will go get it from the garbage if you want," I replied. She looked at the box and showed me that the chocolates were not yet past the expiration date. "Yes, I saw that," I replied, "but I can clearly see that they are expired." "Well, I can't take them back." "Okay, well I don't want them - this is not something I would want to give as a gift. If you don't support your product, I am not going to shop here anymore" - and I started to walk out. She stopped me, "let me call my boss," she says.
So she calls the man that owns the magazin - a neighbor of mine, but not one that I own well. By this time there is a crowd of people in the store to see what is going on, and also, waiting to buy stuff - becuase there is only one person working and she is dealing with me. While the lady working in the store explains to the boss about the chocolates, the people in the background are encouraging her to tell him WHO is trying to return chocolates... "Tell him it's the American girl" one shouts, the other says "make sure he knows it's the peace corps girl." "Shh" I yell at them, "it doesn't matter WHO is returning a product, it matters that the product has to be good." Finally the saleslady resigns, and tells the boss that the American is upset because the chocolate is bad. She gets off the phone a second later, apologizes, and hands me back my money. What a ruckus. I thanked her, even though she was rude to me in the beginning - she was apologetic in the end. I don't think they are used to people demanding to have their money back if a product isn't good. That type of customer satisfaction is a western idea.
So I left the store, and realized, I had no new gift for my host cousin. I didn't want to go back into the store, because I had made a big deal about not knowing if I could trust their products - which I still don't. So, being lazy and not wanting to walk 30 minutes to the other store and back, I returned home, and gave him the money for the chocolates -- and told him to buy them for himself later. He seemed satisfied - to some strange people, money is just as good as choclate - and so did I.
I don't know why I got so mad though - it's not like it was the first time I purchased something that was spoiled or stale or gone bad in Moldova, nor will it likely be the last. Maybe it was becuase the chocolates were a gift. Or maybe I have just worn out my patience for a few of the little issues that I confront everyday, and have confronted for the last year and a half. Watch out world, line cutters are next!!!!
This entry was posted
on Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 4:20 PM.
